Quote:
Originally Posted by BookCat
...The UK doesn't have mosquitoes, it's too cold here...
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The UK definitely does have mosquitos, predominantly of the subfamilies Anophelinae and Culicinae, and they are common and widely distributed where there is water for them to breed in (that water may be saline). A few do not bite humans though. The Health Protection Agency actually monitor their numbers and distribution, and Public Health England give advice for protection against bites and how to control potential breeding sites.
Mosquitoes generally become rarer in urban areas due to the lack of breeding sites and, for example, I have worked in countries which have very high rates of malaria due to mosquito infestation, but even there in large urban areas it is rare to see a mosquito as breeding sites are limited.
It is also not too cold in the UK for many mosquitoes as, like many insects, they can go into semi-hibernation when it is cold (despite that, some manage two breeding cycles per year). So, for example, mosquitos also survive in the likes of Siberia and the Ukraine with no problem at all (and have historically been the cause of very large outbreaks of malaria there). Before controls were put in place the coastal areas of the Netherlands were a particular problem, and using the presence of malaria as evidence for the existence of mosquitoes they have existed throughout the cold regions of Europe, including Scandinavia throughout history.